The energy transition depends on sector-wide collaboration, and Genus’s new COO, David Fyfe, says that harnessing everyone’s unique strengths and different points of view is what will see Australia through the next 50 years.
If the name ‘David Fyfe’ rings any bells, you’re probably thinking of the former Synergy CEO, who led the utility from 2022–25 as it embarked on its journey to renewables and delivered Western Australia’s first-ever large-scale battery energy storage system in Kwinana.
You may even know him from his role before that as the COO of Western Power – or maybe you’re thinking of the Bali Bombing survivor and motivational speaker, or the Chair of the Fiona Wood Foundation.
You might have even run into him during the 12 years he spent at Telstra.
But, most recently, you’ve probably been introduced to him as the new COO at Genus – a family-founded Aussie business that has grown large enough in a single generation to compete with multi-national Tier 1 contractors.
While change is a constant in Mr Fyfe’s career, he’s anything but capricious.
“I was in the Bali Bombings in 2002, and I ended up in hospital for more than two months with over 60 per cent burns,” he said.
“I had my right leg amputated below the knee and had to learn to walk again. So, for me, life’s really about living – it’s about challenging yourself, growing and experiencing new things.
“The other thing I really took out of that was the power of people. And how important relationships are as you go through life changing events.”
Take the risk
The second constant in Mr Fyfe’s career has been utilities.
“I started off working for British Nuclear Fuels at Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station. I was a graduate electrical engineer and that was my first job.”
“I think, when you get your first job, your goal is just to really learn what working is all about. The nuclear power industry was an integral part of the energy landscape in the UK, and as a young engineer, you’re conscious of it, but it’s not hitting you in the face in the early days, it’s just really about learning and growing as a person.”
“Now I’m 56 and even at this point in time I still want to be continually challenged and continue to learn and grow.”
Mr Fyfe came to Australia in the 1990s and took up an engineering role at Telstra before moving into the sales side of the business where he led a large contract negotiations team in Western Australia.
“I think engineers don’t realise that they’re in sales as well – if you put forward a business case, you’re actually selling something. For me, sales was a great grounding on how to pitch something, how to tell a succinct story and the importance of relationships,” he said.
After Telstra, Mr Fyfe returned to the electricity sector, where he spent a decade at Western Power, with seven of those years as its COO.
Mr Fyfe oversaw the utility’s work program, including major projects, the network control centre and all the utility’s contractors. This is where he first met Genus Managing Director and founder, David Riches.
“In the early days, David used to do work on the Western Power network when I was the COO there, and I’ve always had a lot of respect for Genus’ values as a family-run business,” he said
In 2022, Mr Fyfe moved to Synergy as its new CEO, where he and Mr Riches joined forces once again.
“Not long after I joined, we went down to Collie with the State Government and announced the closure of the Synergy-owned coal-fired power station there and a $4 billion investment to build renewable assets,” he said.
“We built Kwinana stage one and two, and when I left, we were just about finished the Collie big battery, and we also got two wind farms through final investment decision.”
“And Genus actually constructed the two big batteries at Kwinana for us and did an amazing job. The $660 million Kwinana stage two was built on time and on budget, which is a great achievement in the current market.”
With Mr Fyfe at the helm, Synergy thrived and by 2025 the goals Mr Fyfe had set himself for the role had been achieved.
“After three years, Synergy was in a good place, and it would have been easy to just enjoy the next couple of years there, but that’s just not really who I am,” he said.
“I really do like new challenges, building new relationships and new industries and I like building things and getting stuff done.
“Genus is really now a central part of the energy transition … so it was a great opportunity for me to get back into the private sector but still be involved in energy.”
Building the future
David Riches founded Genus 16 years ago, and the business began as a contractor that worked on overhead powerlines in Western Australia.
Today, the ASX-listed company has a team of more than 1,800, a $2 billion order book with a pipeline of critical infrastructure to deliver across Australia, and a reported $750 million revenue for 2024–25.
“Dave has achieved amazing things over the course of our relationship,” Mr Fyfe said.
“We’ve now got offices all over the country, we work across emergency services to energy to telecommunications and rail. So, for me, Genus is a fast-growing company, but still at the heart of the energy transition that I’m really passionate about.”
But Mr Fyfe said that what really drew him to Genus was the opportunity to challenge himself at a new organisation with values that aligned with his own.
“Those values really shine through in everything Genus does – there’s no hierarchy here, no egos, everybody just bands together to get stuff done,” he said.
“And whenever we’re doing a job it’s not just about making money, it’s really about building those long-term relationships.”
It’s this focus on learning, collaboration and partnerships that Mr Fyfe believes will be the key to delivering a renewable energy future.
“There’s a lot that needs to be done,” he said.
“And it’s the power of people and the sector working together that’s been able to change the system.”
But Mr Fyfe stresses that collaboration doesn’t mean an echo chamber – and it’s important to have a diverse range of voices and opinions in the conversation.
“I’ve sat on energy panels and had disagreements with the audience, and that’s really enjoyable because challenging our thought processes with different views is what will get us through the next 50 years,” he said.
The cost of renewable energy is no stranger to the spotlight, but a key point that Mr Fyfe said is often overlooked in the energy conversation is the fact that Australia’s thermal power stations, particularly its coal-fired ones, are reaching the end of their service life and need to be replaced – regardless of whether we transition to renewable energy or not.
“If wind farms and batteries didn’t exist, we would be having to invest a lot of money to replace those assets that are reaching their end of life anyway,” he said.
“We often talk about how expensive renewables are, but even if we could build a 1000MW coal-fired power station in the current market, it’d be a lot of money.
“Large power stations also don’t work very well in a renewable market where you have to ramp up and down very quickly. And I think that discussion sometimes gets lost.”
Views on the Federal Government’s 2035 interim emissions targets have been incredibly diverse across the sector, but Mr Fyfe said that it’s important to have both people saying that they’re too low, and people saying that they’re too high.
“Having that diversity of opinion is good, because that’s when the real issues come to the fore, and where ideas come from. I think a target should always be challenging, because that’s what drives you,” he said.
“That’s what the sector is all about. It’s all about collaboration between people with very different points of view.”
Nurturing success
For Mr Fyfe, it’s clear that the future is built on relationships, not just between utilities but at an industry and individual level too – it’s vital that we nurture those partnerships and support everyone to succeed.
“What we try to do at Genus is build long-term relationships with our clients – when we’re not just building a battery project, we’re building a close trust so that we can move on to the next project with that client,” he said.
“It’s not just about price; it’s about bringing value to the table. And the energy sector needs everyone to be involved.”
As a former client of Genus, Mr Fyfe said that he could always pick up the phone and have an honest conversation with Mr Riches about any challenges – and that willingness to jump in and work together to solve issues was what he really enjoyed about working with the team.
“I’ve been on the other side of the fence, so I bring a client perspective to things,” he said.
“I know what the pressure feels like when a project is running a bit behind.”
There’s no doubt that Genus has the engineering expertise to deliver great results, but that success is underpinned by its talented team.
For Genus to grow, it needed to not only attract, but nurture the next generation of talent, and Mr Fyfe said that doing so means creating a work environment that people love to be in.
“We’re really committed to increasing our apprentice and traineeship intake, and local training is something that we’re looking at as well,” he said.
“I always say that if I have 1800 people who come to work, do a job that they really enjoy, get rewarded and recognised appropriately, and go home safe and happy to their family, then we will have an amazing business, and that’s what we’re working to do.”
“And doing that comes down to leadership.”
A business’s culture starts at the executive level, and for Mr Fyfe, leadership isn’t about having a title, and he always has an open-door policy that applies to everyone – from the board to the cleaning team.
“I’ve never liked having a title,” he said.
“Mateship is one of our core values, and what that word is about is we make sure our environment is very welcoming for anybody and everybody. Everyone looks out for each other – and when times get tough everybody jumps in together.
“Dave Riches’ happy place is underneath the transmission line, and he’s one of the team. And that’s where our culture really stems from.”
After he was injured in Bali, Mr Fyfe experienced first-hand just how important it was to have a team and a workplace that supports you.
“I was working at Telstra at the time and they were fantastic,” he said.
“My family had to fly out from Scotland and Telstra flew over senior managers just to meet with my family and tell them that they’d look after me, even if I had to have a year off work.”
In fact, it was a Telstra CEO, David Thodey, that inspired Mr Fyfe’s approach to leadership.
“If he went out to a call centre in Perth and met a staff member with sick family member, then the next time he was in Perth, he would remember that person. He was very calm, very personable and very approachable and that’s what I’ve always aspired to be,” he said.
“To be a leader you’ve got to love people. All throughout my career I’ve interviewed people for senior management roles, and when I ask people why they want to be a leader the answer is usually something like ‘it’s the next logical step’, but they forget that as a leader you’ve got to be willing to spend time with people, to invest in people and accept that people are very different.”
It’s important to start from a place of trust, and Mr Fyfe’s advice is to remember that your job as a leader is to empower people to do their job and be there to support them.
“The vast majority of people just want to come to work and do something they enjoy – very few people want to do the wrong thing. As a leader, you’ve got to find what gets them out of bed every day, what drives them, and then find jobs that they’re really good at doing,” he said.
Often leaders focus on what they perceive as wrong with somebody and spend a lot of time trying to improve their weak spots, but Mr Fyfe believes that “you can’t put in what God left out”.
“Instead of trying to change them, focus on harnessing the things that people are great at,” he said.
“Then they’ll be doing really meaningful work that they get excited about, and the results generally take care of themselves.”
Often businesses spend a lot of time and energy nurturing executive and middle managers, but Mr Fyfe said leaders at the front-line are often overlooked.
“One of the things I’m really passionate about is investing in those front-line leaders,” he said.
“It’s generally people’s first leadership experience, and often they’re focused on getting positive results so what drops away is people development, and they end up just flogging people. So, investing in that leadership group is really important.”
Ultimately, Mr Fyfe’s advice to both current and future leaders is to gain as much experience as possible – and when an opportunity presents itself, your first response should be yes, then you can think about how you’re going to overcome the negatives to make it work.
“Have a crack. If you’re an engineer, have a crack at sales – you’ll learn more about yourself in sales, than in any other role. And if you’re working on a project and it touches another part of the business then go and sit with them and get to know them as individuals.”
“Building connections means you’ll have people who can help you [when you need it].”
“And be inquisitive. The more inquisitive you are, the more inclined you are to take risks, and the more successful you’ll be.”
“If you don’t take risks then you’ll never know what’s possible.”
